Shooting suspect from "most troubled" U.S. base
(CBS/AP) JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. - A soldier suspected of killing 16 Afghan villagers Sunday comes from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, one of the largest military installations in the U.S. — and one that has seen its share of controversies and violence in the past few years.
The base, home to about 100,000 military and civilian personnel, has suffered a spate of suicides among soldiers back from war. The Army is investigating whether doctors at Lewis-McChord's Madigan Army Medical Center were urged to consider the cost of providing benefits when reviewing diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Most famously, four Lewis-McChord soldiers were convicted in the deliberate thrill killings of three Afghan civilians in 2010.
The military newspaper Stars and Stripes called it "the most troubled base in the military" that year.
"It's another blow to this community," said Spc. Jared Richardson, an engineer, as he stood outside a barbershop near the base Sunday. "This is definitely something we don't need."
U.S. soldier held in deaths of 16 Afghans
What might Kandahar shootings mean for U.S.?
Obama "shocked" by Afghan shooting rampage
U.S. officials tell CBS News national security correspondent David Martin the shooter was a conventional soldier from a Stryker Brigade based at Lewsis-McChord, and was assigned to support a special operations unit engaged in a village stability operation, which usually entails training local militiamen to protect the area.
He was a sergeant, married with two children, who had served three tours in Iraq and began his first deployment to Afghanistan in December, a senior U.S. official tells the Associated Press.
Lewis-McChord, a sprawling complex of red brick buildings, training fields and forests, is about 45 miles south of Seattle and has grown quickly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Officials there have said that any community the size of the base is bound to have its problems, and its reputation has been tarred by "a small number of highly visible but isolated episodes" that don't accurately reflect the remarkable accomplishments of its service members, including their work overseas and the creation of new programs to support returning soldiers.
The controversies have indeed been highly visible.
In 2010, a dozen soldiers from the base were arrested on a slew of charges that ranged from using drugs, beating up a whistleblower in their unit, and deliberately killing three Afghan civilians during patrols in Kandahar Province. Prosecutors at Lewis-McChord won convictions against four of the five who were charged in the killings.
Charges dropped against soldier in Afghan deaths
After the first killing, the father of one of the soldiers called Lewis-McChord to report it — and to say that more killings were planned. The staff sergeant who took the call didn't report it to anyone else, saying he didn't have the authority to begin an investigation in a war zone. By the time the suspects were arrested months later, two more civilians were dead.
Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, of Billings, Mont., the highest ranking defendant, was sentenced to life in prison. At his seven-day court martial at Lewis-McChord, Gibbs acknowledged cutting fingers off corpses and yanking out a victim's tooth to keep as war trophies, "like keeping the antlers off a deer you'd shoot."
There have been other episodes of violence involving the base's soldiers or former soldiers. A former soldier shot and injured a Salt Lake City police officer in 2010; he died when police returned fire.
On Jan. 1, a 24-year-old Iraq war veteran shot and killed a Mount Rainier National Park ranger before succumbing to the cold and drowning in a creek.
Last year, Lewis-McChord saw more suicides than ever before — 12, up from 9 in each of the prior two years. The Army has seen more suicides at bases across the country since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began.
The toll at Lewis-McChord rose despite new efforts to counsel soldiers when they come home from war, including the creation of a suicide-prevention office.
In the past five years, about 300 patients at Madigan Army Medical Center at the base had their PTSD diagnoses reversed by a forensic psychiatry team, The Seattle Times reported this month. The Army is reviewing whether those doctors were influenced by how much a PTSD diagnosis can cost, in terms of a pension and other benefits.
At Coffee Strong, a coffee shop near the base that doubles as a resource center for soldiers seeking to leave the Army, executive director Jorge Gonzalez said he was not surprised the shooter was from the base.
"Joint Base Lewis McChord has been bombarded with bad stories," said Gonzales, who served in the Army in Iraq in 2006. "We're not seeing the true costs of war, we're seeing soldiers committing suicide ... murder and domestic violence."
Richardson said the vast majority of the tens of thousands of soldiers at the base were professionals.
"It's unfortunate that these things keeping ending up at Joint Base Lewis-McChord," he said. "I promise you, not even a percent of those people are like this, but unfortunately it keeps happening. Things like this will continue until there is no more war."
Popular on CBSNews.com
- No fatalities in I-5 bridge collapse in NW Wash.
- Young victims of deadly Okla. tornado 10 Photos
- Clean-up efforts underway in Okla. 29 Photos
- Forecasters warn: Up to 6 major storms this season
- Kids, teachers from destroyed Okla. school reunite
- Boy Scouts approve plan to accept openly gay boys 399 Comments
- First funeral held for young Oklahoma tornado victim
- Kansas reporters run for tornado shelter during newscast
Spc. Jared Richardson says that those guilty of atrocities make up less than one percent of all the enlisted. But if they do more damage than the remainder do good, it is still a losing proposition.
And Richardon observes, "Things like this will continue until there is no more war." Those properly schooled in New World Order thinking will interpret this as meaning that thse kind of things go with war and, as long as there is war on this planet, they will continue. However, his words can also be seen as a clandestine threat, that these abominations will continue until the Afghans surrender, roll over and let themselves be raped bloody by the New World Order!
Obama has already announced our surrender in 2014. Don't try to rush things.
Funny, you conservatives called the end of the Iraq debacle a "surrender" as well.
I guess you'd rather see more soldiers die FOR NOTHING?
PS if you remember Cheyne said in an interview:
Inerviewer - the american people are turning against these wars
Cheyne - "so"
How much say do you thing we have?
But you are right. We should all stay home, and let them get on with killing each other. It's what they do well, and they hate having us there anyway. They will now murder as many of our soldiers as possible, and use this awful tragedy as an excuse. They never need a reason to kill; it comes naturally, and it's all they know. The Quran and murder.
Thanks for agreeing with me.But as for the spelling , step off. Because of one of our wars long ago. My eyes are not so good , since one of them does not work anymore because of a Vc's morter. So live with it!!!! I do!
And your source is?
shnovitz - I've gone to Senators and Congressmen and nothing seems to help. It opens a few doors, but they never stay open for very long. He was told if I keep complaining and demanding better treatment for him it will get a whole lot worse before it gets a tiny bit better. So they win. They get to destroy him physically and mentally and there's nothing I can do because any peep I make they take it out on him. Right now he lives off-base in a very quite area and even though he's married he was threatened with having to move back into the barracks. With his PTSD that would be terrible. So right now we're just hoping and praying his rating get back sooner rather than later and he can finally, over six months past his official discharge date, come home.
You shoot, they're gonna shoot back. Where does it end?
And what the heck is going on differently at this base than at others? : /
And this "story" makes no sense anyway, how could ONE man accomplish that many killngs alone, before being stopped?